The U-M architects charged with envisioning Ypsilanti’s much anticipated recreation center share their designs, and discuss why this “new civic anchor” is so important to the future of the city

As I think most of you know, a team of University of Michigan architects and their graduate students were approached some time ago and asked to envision what a new Water Street recreation center might look. Having completed their design concepts, they will be presenting their work to the citizens of Ypsilanti at SPARK East this Thursday afternoon. In preparation for that, I submitted a number of questions. Following are their responses, accompanied by images of their work…

Perhaps, to start, it would make sense to ask how your team became engaged in this project to begin with. Who reached out to you, and how did they present the task?

Our involvement was initiated when Robert Marans, Washtenaw County Parks Commission President and Emeritus Professor of Architecture & Urban Planning at the University of Michigan, contacted the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning regarding the project. He was specifically interested in approaching faculty who were engaged in collaborative practice between architecture and urban planning and who were interested in including students in the work. Craig Borum pursued this initial inquiry and invited Maria Arquero and Jen Maigret to join in a collaboration to bring together his expertise in architecture and construction systems with Maria and Jen’s expertise in sustainable urban practices. Our student team comprised of a mixture of architecture and urban planning graduate students from the University of Michigan.

Can you tell us a little about yourselves, your backgrounds, the student team that you worked with, etc?

The design team, led by Professor of Architecture Craig Borum, includes Assistant Professor of Architecture Jen Maigret, and Assistant Professor of Architecture and Urban and Regional Planning Maria Arquero. This team brings together expertise in the integration and synthesis of knowledge through professional practice experience and scholarly research. The collaboration of the three faculty members extends through teaching, practice and research over the last few years. Professors Borum, Maigret and Arquero have co-taught courses at the graduate level, and are currently collaborating in a series of research projects in the region.

Professor Borum’s design research has garnered considerable accolades for digital fabrication, material practice and, most recently, research that engages climate and atmosphere related to glass construction practices. Borum has focused his research and creative practice at the scale of construction practices and material logics as they challenge predominant modes of architectural practice. His work has, and continues to explore the intersection of geometry and materiality with the scope of both research efforts and commissioned projects. His specific contribution to the discipline of architecture stems from the integration of technical advancements in the description and materialization of building geometries –made possible by computational processes- into built work.

His research is lodged in both investigative and traditional logics of materials, construction techniques, and systems of architectural enclosure (walls, doors, and window systems). His creative practice has substantially contributed to a broader understanding of implications of sustainable thinking on architectural design by offering an alternative to the discursive monoculture of LEED Certification and other formulaic top-down approaches. His approach builds upon recent theoretical speculation on atmospheric effects in a manner that goes beyond their phenomenological and technical implications of material assemblies through an understanding and positioning of the iconography and ideology of materials and tectonics within the architectural discipline.

Assistant Professors Arquero’s and Maigret’s body of research and practice lies at the intersection of urban and regional design, landscape architecture and architecture. Arquero and Maigret are concurrently developing techniques in the representation of regional and metropolitan systems, the analysis of interconnected, geospatial networks, and material practices that prioritize environmental performance and cultural tradition within expanded disciplinary territories. To date, their work has developed a particular expertise in the Great Lakes Region, surrounding links between regionalism and innovative urban stormwater management techniques, and revealing the unique cultural and material heritage around water in the identity of the region. Pursuing an interest to cross-register temporal and physical scales and engage the rich cultural identity of the region, Arquero and Maigret are currently engaged in a series of research initiatives towards the development of more sustainable patterns of urbanization in the city of Detroit. Their most recent research involves place-based design initiatives that prioritize the potential of interconnections between open public space, community capacity building and environmental stewardship.

The student team involved with this project includes:

Catherine Baldwin, MArch, 2012
Leigh Davis, MUP, 2013
Kathryn Dreitzler, MArch, 2014
Chaerin Jin, MUP, 2013
Kayla Lim, B.S.Arch 2010 (U-M), current student at Harvard University, MArch, 2014
Caileigh MacKellar, MArch 2012 McGill University
Amy McNamara, MArch, 2007
Geoffrey Salvatore, MArch, 2013
Alex Timmer, B.S.Arch 2009 (U-M), current student at Harvard University MArch, 2015
Catherine Truong, MArch, 2013

You can access all of our cv’s on the Taubman College website.

Also, you can find more information at the websites of our firms: PLY Architecture and MAde studio.

What can you tell us about your process? I’m assuming, for instance, that, before you started, you walked the site, visited other recreation centers, interviewed people in the community, etc., right?

The design process started in May, and has undergone different phases. We started with the compilation and analysis of the information on site conditions. Throughout that time, and since then, we have visited the site frequently to document the current conditions, and to better understand the relationship and transitions between the river and the downtown. We have used photography to capture particular aspects of the natural and constructed environments that are important in our approach to site. This site, in particular, is very rich and layered due to its industrial history, urban adjacency and greenway river corridor. On two occasions, the Washtenaw County Parks and Recreation coordinated walks on the site and on other occasions, although anecdotal, we learned about the importance of the river as an active destination from the individuals we encountered. It is also evident that the site is currently challenging to access and that improved connectivity with Riverside and Waterworks Park are desired. Furthermore, due to the potential to connect indoor activities with outdoor activities and because of the importance of the trees in the river landscape, the site is unusual and exceptional, as compared with other recreation center sites that we visited. Working with the still recent memory of the industrial past of the site provides a poetic opportunity to reclaim the site for public use.

As part of our program research, we toured several regional recreation centers as a way to better understand how each recreation center served the specific needs of its community members. We provided information at the recent Heritage Festival during which time the Washtenaw County Parks and Recreation Department distributed a program survey to gain additional feedback from community members about what makes Ypsilanti’s needs unique and how its recreation center can best serve those needs.

We visited a series of recreational centers in the region, interviewed programming, business and facilities managers to hear about the strengths and challenges of the recreation centers they knew well. We were also able to obtain several floor plans of other recreation centers, which enabled us to study program sizes, distribution and general approaches to the organization of circulation and activities. Throughout the entire project, we are greatly indebted to the generosity of Cathy Duchon, director of the Ann Arbor YMCA, who attended the recreation center site visits and design project meetings and whose feedback has been invaluable in the development of the design schemes.

Before we talk about your designs, perhaps you could share your thoughts concerning Ypsi’s existing urban form, the natural features that we have to work with, and how both of those things guided your thinking.

This is an interesting question for us because the context of the site has been one of the main drivers in both of the designs. Urban form is one important component of that, but there is also a rich set of narratives that enliven city spaces and in the case of Ypsilanti, these arise out of a number of interesting sources, including a historic plan, designed by the Olmstead Brothers, for an “emerald necklace” of parks and public spaces along the Huron River. These drawings are on display at Ypsilanti’s City Hall and played a part in reminding us of the longstanding commitment that the City of Ypsilanti has had towards a vision of an integrated, sustainable urbanism.

Someone recently pointed out to me that the term “Rec Center,” could mean a lot of different things. What are the specific needs you’re looking to serve with this project? And how have those particular needs affected what’s gone into the design concepts that you’re proposing? Also, I’m curious as to what you’ve chosen to leave out.

We started with a very inclusive definition of “user”, as the recreational center is located in the very core of Ypsilanti. The idea that this cosmopolitan civic facility has the potential to attract a wide range of residents is one of the most fascinating aspects of the proposal. In this sense, this facility will cater to professionals and families and offer programming for all ages. This wide range of users demands a flexible programming of the space, both inside and out, under the promise to serve as a new civic anchor for the community. The primary program presented in both recreation center design schemes includes two pools (one lap Swimming pool with a cooler temperature, and a second, open water, warmer temperature pool), cardio and weight-lifting areas, a gym (comprised of half courts that can be separated for multiple, simultaneous activities), a multi-lane banked track, multipurpose rooms (including space for workout group classes and yoga), and a child-watch area.

Beyond active programs, the recreational center aims to bring people together and create a sense of community. In this particular case, the Rec Center is also responsible to foster imagination and trigger future development in Water Street. Given its unique location, the Center will grant public access and continuity to both the Municipal Historical Park System and the regional Huron Valley green network. The Recreational Center has a tactical location that serves as a transition from the historical downtown to the rich riverine landscape, and sets grounds for future development of a former industrial site in the heart of the city.

What did you perceive to be the most significant challenges? Clearly you’ve got things to contend with, in a geographic sense, like the river, the flood plain, the access from Michigan Avenue, but you’ve also got to consider the fact that you might well be setting the tone for the next 100 years in this City, right?

This project is challenging in a number of ways, and the decisions made about approaches to an environmentally sensitive site that has an important economic, urban and cultural role in Ypsilanti are critical to setting a tone for the kind of development that can be fostered within the Water Street site. Economic desires are sometimes seen to be at odds with environmental sensitivity, however, in the case of the recreation center, the challenge of working along the river and within a portion of a flood plain represents an opportunity to create a building that is a model of sustainable urbanism.

This is even more challenging and important given the public nature of the recreation center and the activities it hosts both within the building as well as on the grounds of its site. In this way, one of the most exciting spatial challenges of the project is to link access from the Border-to-Border trail along the river with access from vehicular parking and from pedestrian, bike and bus traffic along Michigan Avenue. In both schemes, we accomplished this kind of connectivity and ensured that the entry to the recreation center would be urban, accessible and visually tied to the river while ensuring that only a single check in desk would be necessary to maintain security and customer service.

Speaking of the flood plain, the first design for this development, some 12 years ago, when it was in the hands of a private developer, called for a great deal of soil to be trucked in, altering the natural topography of the site. The reasoning, I suspect, was that more land above the 100 year flood plane meant more buildable lots, which, in turn, translated into to more money for the developer. Given our earlier conversations, it sounds as though you’ve rejected this idea. Why?

We strongly believe that it is a mistake to build on this site without taking the responsibility of water management seriously. Many of our current water infrastructure challenges, including frequent over-capacity of combined sewer systems, is due to the accumulated effects of short-sighted approaches to flood plains and urban materiality. In many cases, the short term economic “bump” from more buildable lots results in an overall infrastructural expense that far exceeds the gain. If the expenses of dams, combined sewer overflows and wastewater treatment plants were taken into account, our approaches to urban construction would change significantly in its approach to water. In this way, it is critical that on sites, such as Water Street, the approach to building does not displace water, but rather accommodates rain water as a resource rather than “waste.” Anything other than this approach risks the integrity of the larger river system rather than taking advantage of this challenge to construct a forward- looking truly sustainable example of a twenty-first century public building.

You have two primary designs. Can you tell us about each of them, what their individual advantages are, and how they differ from one another?

Our approach to this project has been to develop two schemes, each of which prioritizes a different set of opportunities emerging from the intersection of the Huron River greenway system and Michigan Avenue.

“The Canopy” presents a recreation center that is an architectural extension of the canopy of trees on the riverfront site. The ground of this scheme forms a constructed landscape that generously accommodates the program of the building while the floating canopy roof above defines and connects the spaces underneath. The organization of this scheme centralizes the program of the recreation center and allows for views of and between the pools, check-in and gym activities, as well as to the river and park beyond. The elevated track allows one to travel through the depth of the canopy roof structure above, moving through the gym and entry spaces with constantly changing views between inside activities below and elevated views of nature outside. Glass, with white, fritted patterns of trees, forms the enclosure of the recreation center. The elevation facing Michigan Avenue integrates a generous sidewalk that allows pedestrians along Michigan Avenue to move under the roof canopy and see through the upper portion of the gym and track thereby participating in the visual life of the center. The elevation that faces the river is civic in scale while functioning like a porch for visitors to gather together. It brings a portion of the Border-to-Border trail under the canopy roof and past an entry point before returning back to the portion of the trail that follows the River. In all of these ways, “The Canopy” Recreation Center is an extension of the park system that serves as a welcoming gateway between the city and the park. “The Canopy” Recreation Center promotes social interactivity, transparency to the city, and a connection to the Border to Border trail.

“The Storefront” presents a recreation center that is an extension of the scale and visual patterns of the urban fabric of Michigan Avenue. This scheme takes inspiration from both the meandering Huron River and the historical character of nearby storefronts. “The Storefront” Recreation Center stretches out along the length of the River, touching down at the northern end of the site along Michigan Avenue and elevating above of the ground towards the southern end of the site, providing a sheltered exterior gathering space below. The entry area is organized around a public plaza that links Michigan Avenue and the Border-to-Border trail under the northern corner of the building. This is a project that fosters dispersed social spaces that provide a sense of discovery as one travels through the separated spaces. Additionally, two exterior rooftop “lily pads” allow for small exercise classes and events to spill out onto the second floor green roof. The track in this project starts at the climbing wall, circles the gym and has continuous glimpses through the skin of the building out to the River, the rest of the Water Street site and into a rainwater courtyard. The elevation facing Michigan Avenue touches down to the west and allows for pedestrians to move under an upper level of workout spaces towards the entry doors. Long portions of the elevation that face the Huron River are clear glass in order to connect views from inside to outside. The activity spaces along the riverfront side include the pool, cardio spaces and the gym. The façade borrows directly from the patterns and rhythms of Ypsilanti’s downtown storefronts and uses contemporary, double-skin construction systems that maximize natural daylight while providing energy efficiency. The façade honors both history and the present while balancing transparency with privacy.

The City is primarily on a grid system, with the Huron River curling through it. How did the related urban form, in particular the City’s substantial historic district, walkable downtown, and nearby neighborhoods, inform the design of the site and building?

Both schemes mediate the transition between the gridded urban system, along Michigan Avenue, and the gently meandering natural systems along the Huron River. Across the entire Water Street site, the urban grid scheme continues the existing urban block scale of Ypsilanti while using a variety of building typologies and siting strategies to accommodate differences between interior, urban blocks and the perimeter river blocks. In contrast, the ribbon urban scheme recognizes Michigan Avenue and the Huron River as the two distinct resources of the site. It therefore uses the strategy of historic ribbon farms to establish blocks that have access to both river and urban entities. Both urban schemes propose strategies for public spaces and complete streets that integrate sustainable stormwater management techniques, generous street tree plantings and active recreation pocket parks. The resulting scale and organization of streets and public spaces foster walkability, encourage connectivity with the river and recognize that the Water Street’s site most important asset is its citizens and the quality of life that can emerge from a contemporary, sustainable approach to urbanism.

When you were approached to do this project, you were told, as I understand it, that you had 12 acres to work with, on the westernmost side of the parcel. (The entire parcel is 38 acres.) As you may know, there’s been a bit of push-back from some in the community, who feel as though this development, as it’s not going to generate tax revenue for the City directly, should be relegated to a “less desirable” part of the parcel, further away from downtown, and further off Michigan Avenue. While I know that this isn’t ultimately your decision, I was curious if you could tell me, in your opinion, why it might make sense to put the rec center on the end of the parcel closest to the heart of downtown.

The parcel designated for the recreation center is the most appropriate site within the Water Street redevelopment area for two primary reasons. The first is that at the heart of every great city lies a commitment and vision for civic, public space that fosters connections between its people and the natural systems of a place. Ypsilanti has already shown its commitment to establishing an outstanding greenway system along the Huron River that has the potential to link these public, natural spaces with the cultural activities of its downtown. Siting a recreation center at the intersection between the Huron River Greenway system and the Michigan Avenue corridor reinforces a commitment to community and offers the possibility of augmenting indoor recreation activities with outdoor recreational spaces. The second reason that this site is more appropriate for a recreation center than other forms of development is that the site itself is not the most valuable parcel in the Water Street redevelopment area (as determined by independent real estate consultants hired by the City of Ypsilanti) due to its difficult topography, the existence of a flooplain area and the difficulty, if not impossibility of establishing an appropriate curb cut for vehicular traffic. The recreation center schemes deal with these challenges both by concentrating the buildable area in a portion smaller than 12 acres and by bringing vehicular access through the curb cuts and streets to be constructed to support the rest of the development.

Unless I’m mistaken, while you were primarily engaged to consider what the rec center might look like, you also spent a good deal of time thinking about the master plan for the entire parcel. I’m curious as to the assumptions you started with. For instance, as you know, the City, given how much we’ve invested, needs to make a certain amount of money back in the way of taxes for this development to make fiscal sense, and I’m wondering to what extent that influenced your work. In other words, I’m curious to what extent you might have worked backwards from that tax revenue dollar amount to determine things like density, and the mix of residential and retail on the site.

One of the exercises we did with the students was a financial analysis to better understand the existing market conditions that will factor into the future Water Street development. For this study, we used available data on land value, site preparation cost estimates, and other real estate indicators. We also studied some of the previous plans for the site to better understand the aspirations of the city and the business community prior to the 2008 crisis. All of the work done, by others, in previous analyses was tremendously useful to establish some basic assumptions that guided some basic attributes of our urban design schemes.

We developed two different scenarios, each with slightly different compositions of residential unit numbers and commercial square footage. Each of the two urban schemes also propose different approaches to public space and access to urban amenities in order to better gain feedback surrounding what would be most valued by the community. From these initial numbers, we decided to “build out” the model that was predicted to be the most profitable. To give you a sense of what these numbers guided, we designed massing strategies (for both the grid and ribbon schemes) to accommodate roughly 400 housing units (ranging from 1 to 3 bedrooms), and a series of commercial components including retail, office and a hotel.

The financial proforma looks at a ten-year period to understand profitability, and gives some ideas of how to create manageable units of development, distribute densities, and capitalize on the frontage to the river (on the south end of the site, as we mentioned earlier, the east edge is a difficult development site) and Michigan Avenue. We assimilated these elements to craft an approach to site that builds on mixed use strategies to ensure a diversity of uses across the site, interspersed with public parks and recreation activity spaces. In these ways, the financial information guided our approach towards the careful design of the public realm to ensure a balance between optimum economic, social and environmental performance.

The site we’re talking about, as you know, is sandwiched in between the very popular Riverside Park and the very underused Waterworks Park. How much time have you spent looking at the way people use those parks (or how they could use those parks), and how has that affected your thinking about the rec center building and the site?

While we did not spend a great deal of time studying Riverside Park and Waterworks Park in particular, both urban approaches recognize the importance of extending the River Street corridor in an urban, pedestrian friendly way in order to allow for the activities north of the site to spill through the site and across the Huron River. In the grid approach, this is accomplished through a proposed boulevard and plaza space along the River’s edge that opens up and constructs a visual connection with Waterworks park. In the ribbon scheme, this is accomplished with a ribbon of trees that extend through the entire site and link with a new bridge crossing and plaza space for the Border to Border Trail.

As for the rec center itself, how big is it, what have you included, and how does it stack up when compared to other rec centers in the area?

Both of the recreation center schemes are approximately 65,000 square feet. Compared with other recreation centers that provide gym and cardio spaces, a track and two pools, it is modest in its size. For comparison’s sake, it is smaller than the Detroit YMCA (100,000 sf), the Spartan Stores YMCA (86,000 sf) and the Ann Arbor YMCA (71,000 sf) while it is larger than the Meri Lou Murray Recreation Center (56,000 sf).

There are, as you know, other design firms that just design and build recreation centers. From what I can tell, they’re typically just dropped into greenfields, like the new Washtenaw Community College Recreation Center, and don’t integrate well with their surroundings, but one would imagine they’re relatively inexpensive, and not terribly risky. Why, in your opinion, is it important, in this instance, to go with something that’s not just “off the shelf”?

The Eastside Recreation Center project deserves a site-specific approach that catalyzes the unique opportunities that it represents. The site requires an specific approach that recognizes the need for a transition between historic and new development and urban and natural systems. A generic approach cannot accomplish this nor can it bring innovative thinking to the level of specificity required of integrated, sustainable design. Furthermore, a generic approach would not necessarily be either less expensive nor less risky due to the amount of site work that would be required to produce a “neutral” tabula rasa and the consequences of constructing a recreation center surrounded by parking and asphalt on such an environmentally sensitive site. Overall, we believe that good architecture, and therefore good urbanism must instead show an appreciation for the complexity of existing conditions along Michigan Avenue and be of this place rather than of “no” place.

Could you tell us how the Border to Border bike trail factored into your design?

In both schemes that we are presenting, incorporating the Border to Border trail has been a prominent design goal. The trail is integrated into the exterior circulation and even weaves under the physical overhang of the building. Both Rec center schemes are conceived of as part of the Border to Border trail, versus remaining autonomous from the recreation center development. Our design proposals enhance the desirability of the trail by serving as attractive destination spots with outdoor activities and outdoor park spaces to gather and enjoy the river setting. We hope that as the site is beautified with parks and civic spaces, that more people will use the trail.

As I understand it, you’ll be holding two public meetings later this week, during which you’ll show these designs, and answering questions… When and where will these meetings be taking place?

The information about the two schemes and the urban approaches will be on display at the SPARK East Business Incubator at 215 W. Michigan Avenue, Ypsilanti between September 26-28, 2012. We will be available for questions and conversation between 3pm and 8pm on Thursday, September 27 and will be giving two presentations, the first at 4pm and a second at 7pm.

What happens next? Who ultimately signs off of the designs? And, assuming they do, then what happens?

This question would be best asked of the Washtenaw County Parks Department, who will be present at the SPARK presentation to address questions that we cannot.

Southeast Michigan doesn’t have much in the way of what you might call cutting edge contemporary architecture. Assuming one of your designs gets built, do you think it’s likely that it could be a cultural draw in perpetuity, as well as being a useful counterpoint to the design tone of the rest of the city?

We truly believe that this building bears a great responsibility of setting the tone for the future development within the Water Street Redevelopment Area and for establishing an expectation for the quality of materials and spaces that contemporary civic life merits.

One last thing… What kinds of materials will you be suggesting?

The projects have developed approaches towards materiality such as relative levels of transparency and layering. The materials that we have represented in the concept designs include glass, steel, brick, powder coated metal panels (sometimes perforated) and landscape materials to construct low maintenance, water-absorbing public plaza spaces.

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The Humanists present their “sensible approach to Islam”

A few times a year, inspired by my ever-growing admiration for Kurt Vonnegut, I get the urge to delve into Humanism. (For those of you who are unaware of what Humanism is, Vonnegut, a devout Humanist, described it thusly… “Being a Humanist means trying to behave decently without expectation of rewards or punishment after you are dead.”) Well, this evening, while engaged in this intellectual pursuit, between episodes of Breaking Bad, I happened across the following statement, issued today, from the American Humanist Association Board of Directors concerning what they refer to as “a sensible approach to Islam.” And, as I agree with every word of it, I thought that I’d share it. (I also think it’s a great followup to our conversation of this weekend concerning the debate as to whether or not moderate Islam exists.)

Over a long period culminating in recent years, Muslim fundamentalists dedicated to establishing Islamic theocracies have ascended to power and solidified their authority in several countries. They have also established enclaves in many other nations, and some of them have formed terrorist organizations. Though belonging to various Muslim sects, these theocrats share a willingness to implement Islamist Sharia laws with punishments that disregard basic human rights, particularly women’s rights, and some conduct assassinations and brutal reprisals in the name of “true” Islam.

Though adherents of this type are gaining in numbers and power, they do not represent all Muslims. Generalizing Islam as entirely violent undermines the efforts of millions of Muslims and others who are struggling to challenge the rise of extremism.

Since September 11, 2001, prejudice and discrimination have been on the rise in Europe, the United States, and elsewhere against Muslims. Such individuals are suffering from increased security screenings, hostile media attention, and oppressive new laws, as well as localized acts of violence and widespread disrespect. Moreover, disinformation campaigns and negative imagery have led to popular confusion wherein al-Qaeda is inaccurately connected to the former regime of Saddam Hussein, Iranians and South Asians are misidentified as Arabs, Sikhs are mistaken for Muslims, and the world faith of Islam, with its 1.3 billion followers, is viewed as a doctrinaire monolith.

The American Humanist Association is opposed to both the activities of Islamic extremists and to the “crusade” mentality rising in Western circles that condemns all Muslims indiscriminately. This statement aims at defining a rational and informed humanist position.

Common Standards

Humanists should assess Islam using the same standards applied to all belief systems. This means, in practice, that humanists support the concept of a democratic secular state, with complete separation of religion and government. Consistent with this, humanists oppose theocracy in all of its forms and support:

• The freedom to think and believe or not believe, and to profess or critique, resisting efforts to impose one’s religious beliefs on others through coercive and punitive measures
• The choice to observe or not to observe religious practices, to the degree that such practices do not harm others or interfere with their rights
• Democratic principles, to the degree that such choices do not permit the state to engage in religious indoctrination or similar tyrannies of the majority
• Modern human rights, not tolerating violations of those basic rights whether or not they are bolstered by religious law or custom

A Balanced Humanist Policy

There is a great deal of violence in the world today, a disturbing portion of which is perpetrated in the name of Islam. Humanists recognize that the world of Islam is vast and heterogeneous, and problems that exist in one area may not exist in others. For this reason, one-size-fits-all responses to issues that outsiders perceive within Islam are not only unworkable but are likely to be detrimental to humanistic solutions.

While small numbers of Muslim revivalists may reside in the United States, and while there is a continuing threat of terrorist attack from Islamic terrorist groups, extremist Islam as a political force has not taken hold in this country. Problems are mostly limited to instances when Islamic requirements, such as those relating to dress or prayer, conflict with preexisting law and custom. These are often resolved in a spirit of mutual understanding. When that fails and the courts intervene, their decisions should reflect both practical requirements and a respect for religious freedom. In general, humanists do not support either extending religious accommodation in ways that would create an unequal playing field between the religious and nonreligious or rigidly enforcing legal provisions that unnecessarily encumber individual religious liberty.

Some countries, notably in Western Europe, have been less successful than the United States in integrating Muslim immigrants into mainstream society. Humanists respect the desire of the majorities in these countries to preserve their human rights traditions; they also support the efforts of humanist groups to resolve emerging problems in a humane and practical manner. But this is not a blanket endorsement of cultural preservation. Some approaches have been strikingly racist and ethnocentric in nature. While freedom of speech must not be compromised, humanists oppose nativism, jingoism, and open hostility toward Muslim citizens and immigrants within any nation.

Humanists strive for a world where violence and fear are not the drivers of ideals and actions. In every case and in all its forms, extremism must be condemned. But neither should fear and ignorance be permitted to sanction prejudice and discrimination. Humanists recognize that challenging Islamists, Christian fundamentalists, and all others who hold to religious or ideological extremes is not a process with an easy or short-term conclusion, but it is the way toward progress.

Humanists see no contradiction, on the one hand, between their longstanding adherence to principles that run contrary to religious beliefs and, on the other, their strong distaste for efforts to propagate a crusade mentality against Islam or any other religion. Religious liberty means freedom for all: freedom to peacefully affirm and practice a faith, freedom from religious coercion, and freedom to peacefully leave or reject a faith. Such religious liberty is and always has been a central tenet of humanism and is herewith reaffirmed.

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Ypsi/Arbor Exit Interview: Nicasia Marie Solano-Reed

I was recently alerted to the fact that a young woman had left Ypsilanti to pursue her dreams of becoming a professional ballerina in New York City. Fortunately, I was able to track her down. Following is the transcript of her exit interview.

MARK: Let’s start with your name, OK?

NICASIA: My full name is Nicasia Marie Solano-Reed, but on the internet I go by Nicasia Marie.

MARK: I think you might be the youngest person I’ve ever conducted an exit interview with. How old are you?

NICASIA: I am sixteen years old, and five months, to be specific.

MARK: And you just recently moved from Ypsilanti to New York, leaving your family behind, so that you could study at the Joffrey Ballet, right?

NICASIA: I lived in New York for the month of July, and returned to New York two weeks ago. I am currently studying at the Joffrey Ballet School as a trainee, which means that I am a student, but I learn choreography from the performing company as well.

MARK: So, I take it that you’re pretty good…

NICASIA: I never know quite how to respond to that statement, but I will try to explain myself without sounding too modest or egotistical! My greatest strength as a dancer is that I am incredibly hardworking, and my work ethic allows me to advance and excel beyond other dancers who might not dedicate as much time and effort to their work. I’ve also worked with an outstanding teacher throughout the past two years, and she has molded my passion, talent, work ethic. She has turned me into a wonderful dancer. I’ve also been blessed with a wonderful ballet body. Ballerinas are supposed to be thin, tall, and flexible, and thankfully I am all three of those things. My body also contributed toward my being accepted into a multitude of dance schools. In short, I wouldn’t be where I am today if I weren’t a strong, and naturally blessed, dancer.

MARK: Is it considered bad form to ask ballerinas about the Black Swan? If so, you don’t have to answer. I’ve never seen it, though, and I was wondering what your thoughts were concerning how the film portrayed ballet dancers.

NICASIA: It isn’t considered bad form, but many dancers are rather opinionated about the movie. Personally, I think that Black Swan is a wonderful work of cinematography and portrays some true aspects of the dance world, but shouldn’t be considered a ballet movie. It is true that the ballet world can be twisted, deceitful, and dangerously competitive, but any ballet dancer will tell you that ballet is their greatest joy despite the many struggles. The ballet world isn’t as dark as the movie makes it out to be. It bugs me, and most dancers, that the media has portrayed Natalie Portman as a great ballerina. It is actually quite disrespectful and upsetting that she has achieved ballerina status. Ballet dancers train for hours on end, seven days per week, for years on end to become technically proficient and beautiful artists so they can receive and maintain jobs in ballet companies, while never achieving Natalie Portman’s level of fame. She didn’t train as a ballet dancer and is not a ballerina. Her double, Sarah Lane of American Ballet Theater wasn’t given enough credit for doing the majority of the dancing in the film.

MARK: You trained, I believe, at the Ann Arbor Ballet Theatre. I’m curious as to how common it is for young people, such as yourself, to go on to pursue careers in ballet from a program like that. As I know absolutely nothing about that world, I’m just trying to get a sense as to how rare it is for someone to leave our corner of Michigan for New York at sixteen. I imagine it doesn’t happen very often, right?

NICASIA: I have trained with with Ann Arbor Ballet Theatre and it’s school, CAS Ballet Theatre School under Carol Radovic and Kathy Sharp for the past two years. I am the first in ten years to leave CAS Ballet Theatre School in attempts to pursue a career. I only know of two other people who have left the Ypsilanti area to study ballet in New York, so it is not a common occurrence among dancers in the area. Many girls choose to wait until they graduate high school to try and pursue a dance career, but often times, at the age of eighteen, it’s already too late to begin preparing to dance in a company. It is uncommon, but necessary for me to leave home and train at the age 16 in order to ensure that I have proper training and a successful career.

MARK: How are you liking NY? Are you getting to see much of it, or are you dancing until you collapse every day?

NICASIA: I LOVE New York. That sounds terribly touristy, but it’s true. I’m a total city person, and I love the diversity and energy of New York more than any other place in the world. I never plan on moving away from here. I had more free time while I was here in July, so I got to explore lots of the city then. Right now, I am dancing until I collapse, so I’m limited to sightseeing and shopping on the weekends. Over the summer, I lived in the Financial District, right now I’m living in Queens, and next week I’m moving to the Upper West Side (which is my absolute favorite area) so I’ve gotten to know a few areas of the city by nature of living there.

MARK: Is it everything that you hoped it would be?

NICASIA: I have had an obsession with New York ever since I can remember that spawned from a love of cities, bright neon lights, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and high fashion. I begged my parents to take us there every time we planned for vacation, but my family never quite shared my fascination with the city. When I arrived in July, I was worried that New York wouldn’t meet my expectations. It didn’t just meet them, it exceeded them in all aspects, and I fell in love. I love everything about New York, and I am so happy that my dreams of New York came true.

MARK: When did you first know that you wanted to dance?

NICASIA: I wasn’t interested in ballet when I was younger, and I never asked my mom if I could take a ballet class. I did however (and still do) have a severe inability to sit still for more than 10 minutes at a time. My mom read a study which declared that ballet created discipline in children that could be transferred to all aspects of their lives. She wasted no time enrolling me in a pre-ballet class at the Ypsilanti Township Rec Center in hopes that I would calm down some. Not only did I calm down, I fell in love. Some people never really figure out what they want, and where their purpose in life lies, but I’ve known since I was five at a rec center ballet class. Its been my dream to be a ballet dancer from day one.

MARK: What do you miss most about Ypsilanti, other than your family?

NICASIA: I really do love Ypsilanti, and I miss its quirky, slightly ghetto, and charming style. I miss Riverside Park a lot, because that’s where my friends and I would always go to gossip and dip our toes in the water. I miss the Ugly Mug and their flawless coffee, and I miss how quiet Ypsi can be. I also really miss my house and my cats.

MARK: You have a blog entitled “An Aspiring Ballerina’s Blog.” Can you tell us why you started the blog?

NICASIA: I created my blog initially so my friends and family could stay updated on my journey. My friends and family don’t know much about ballet, so it is a great way for them to stay informed and educated about what I’m doing with my life. I give the address to random people I meet as well as sharing the link every week on Facebook and Twitter, because I realized that its a great way for myself and ballet to gain publicity. Money is also incredibly tight in my family because of the expenses created by ballet, and I thought that a blog was a good way to share my story and gain financial support in the process.

MARK: When did you move to Ypsilanti, or were you born here?

NICASIA: I was born and raised in Ypsilanti. Homegrown Ypsi girls are the best!

MARK: Did I read correctly on your blog that your dad was looking for work in New York? Is there a possibility that the family may move out there, to be near you?

NICASIA: Life is really crazy and beautiful. When I came to New York in July my dad interviewed for a teaching position at City University of New York. He hasn’t had a full time job for the past few years and has worked six or seven part time jobs as a freelance cello artist in order make ends meet in our family and support my dreams. At the end of August, he was awarded the job at City University and promptly moved to New York a few weeks ahead of when I was scheduled to move. My dad received a much deserved job as a cello teacher, and I am so happy that he did. I live with my dad here in New York, which I love because we’re both quiet and I don’t have to deal with living in student housing. My mom still lives in Ypsilanti and works in Detroit, and doesn’t have any immediate plans to move out here, even though it’s really tough for her to be away from my dad and me. My brother is a freshman at the University of Michigan and wouldn’t have moved with us regardless.

MARK: I’m curious as to how things work at the Joffrey Ballet. Are you in a program with a number of other girls, and, at some point, do some move on, while others return home? I’m sorry if that’s an awkward subject, but I have no idea how this industry works, and I’m interested. My sense, however, is that it’s incredibly competitive, extremely intense, and often brutal. Are you all competing for parts in productions, trying to get in front of people, or does that kind of thing happen later?

NICASIA: There are roughly 100 girls at the Joffrey Ballet School, and it’s technically a four year program, although many leave before their time is up. 60% of girls leave Joffrey with job offers from various dance companies. The other 40% either decide that a career in ballet isn’t right for them, or simply don’t have what it takes to be professional dancers. That sounds harsh, but its true. Joffrey is filled with performance opportunities, and parts depend on how we do during initial rehearsals, in which we learn choreography. The rehearsals are intense, and are “learn fast or go home.” Outside of Joffrey, all dance companies (School of American Ballet, American Ballet Theater, ect) hold auditions for their schools and summer intensives in January and February. Thousands of dancers audition and only a few hundred are accepted, and the auditions are extremely competitive. The ballet world is intense. It’s every dancer for themselves, and dancers endure immense physical and emotional pain from teachers, directors, and the art form itself.

MARK: I have a friend who’s a dance writer for New York Times. Every time I’ve spoken with her, I’ve been amazed by how many productions are staged in the City. I would have thought that there might be a few new things a month, but, as she tells it, there are multiple things happening every night. It must be kind of intoxicating to be in that kind of environment, having left a relatively small town.

NICASIA: In Ypsilanti ballet was my entire life because I made it my entire life. Ballet is pretty foreign to most people in Ypsilanti. New York makes ballet my life for me. I can go see a ballet almost any night of the week, and I’m constantly surrounded by ballet dancers and ballet enthusiasts alike. It can be overwhelming, but it is for the most part really magical.

It can be pretty depressing, talking to talented young people who are leaving our community, as I often find myself doing, but, in a way, it’s also kind of beautiful. It’s cool to think that we’re incubating inquisitive, driven young adults and watching them head bravely out into the world to attempt great things. As much as it hurts that they can’t find what they’re looking for here, at least right now, it’s nice to know that these brilliant people are finding their own ways, and making opportunities for themselves. It gives me hope for my kids.

Posted in Special Projects, Ypsilanti | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

“Design is the reason you buy crap that you don’t need to live”

In conjunction with the Detroit Design Festival this last weekend, the Detroit chapter of the AIGA announced a poster competition.

Here’s their call for submissions.

…What is design? A universal language? A problem solving tool? Your obsession? This is your opportunity to show the Detroit design community what design means to you. All you have to do is design a poster that fills in the blank: Design is ______________.

I don’t know how many people entered the competition. I’ve spent the past several minutes looking around the web, and, while I was able to find several responses to the question posted on the Detroit Design Festival’s Facebook page, I was only able to find evidence of one poster actually having been submitted. I did, however, come across what I’m assuming was a non-official submission while walking around Detroit this weekend. I found the following plastered onto the side of an abandoned building near the offices of the Heidelberg Project on Saturday, while hopscotching with my daughter.

This message isn’t anything new. I’ve heard it said before, several times, in different ways, in different contexts. For as long as I can remember, for instance, I’ve heard people saying, “Advertising exists in oder to convince people that they desperately need things which they could easily live without.” It only makes sense that someone would extend it from advertising to design. But, I loved the context of this, as it was right outside one of the stops on the Detroit Design Festival itinerary, and thought that I’d share it. As someone who appreciates good design, I don’t know that I agree, but I certainly think it’s worth discussing.

So, is design, like advertising, evil?

[Tonight’s post was brought to you by the new iPhone 5. Order yours today!]

Posted in Detroit, Marketing, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , | 17 Comments

Trying to reason with people on the existence of moderate Islam

A few days ago, in a thread about the killing of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens a conservative Christian reader of this site, who goes by the name EOS, proclaimed definitively, “There is no such thing as moderate Islam regardless of how much we might wish it were so.” When confronted with facts, and asked to elaborate, he then offered the following.

Al-Takeyya- The Islamic principle of lying for the sake of Allah. Falsehoods told to prevent denigration of Islam, to protect oneself, or to promote the cause of Islam are sanctioned by the Qur’an, including lying under penalty of perjury in testimony before the United States Congress, lying or making distorted statements to the media such as claiming that Islam is a religion of peace, and deceiving fellow Muslims when the one lying has deemed them to be apostates. The word literally means to protect or guard against and conveys the principle that Muslims are permitted to lie as a preventative measure to protect themselves and Islam, especially in life or liberty threatening circumstances. It is important that the Muslim does not mean it in his heart, however.

As with most of his not so intellectually rigorous scholarship, it seems as though EOS plagiarized this from elsewhere, without citing his source. Regardless, though, the rest of the MarkMaynard.com community came forward in good faith, as they often do, and attempted to speak reason to him. The following response came from our friend in New York, Doug Skinner.

Well, I must admit I’m no expert; but as far as I know, takeyya (or taqiyya) is an obscure Shi’ite term taken out of context and promoted by Robert Spencer and other anti-Islamic writers, and many Muslims have never heard of it. Similarly, antisemitic writers used to charge that a passage in the Kol Nidre meant that Jews were encouraged to lie to Christians.

By the way, Christian and Jewish theologians also discuss when lying is permissible. Most agree that the question “Do I look fat in this dress?” need not be answered with scrupulous honesty.

And, EOS, are you unaware that there are different sects of Islam? The fact that they are different means that they’re not all the same.

EOS, I think it’s safe to say, was unmoved by this line of reasoning. In his mind, it would seem, there can, by definition, be no such thing as a moderate Muslim, regardless of the polling data we see from Eastern Libya, for instance, which reveals, in the words of noted historian Juan Cole, “the United States has a 60% favorability rating, while the Salafis or hard line Muslims stand at only 28% favorable.” The filter though which EOS sees the world, it would seem, cannot accept the fact that we’re not facing a monolithic, cartoon-like foe. Pictures of a dying Chris Stevens being whisked away to a hospital on the shoulders of sympathetic Muslims, becomes, in the mind of EOS, and those like him, images of our Ambassador being kidnapped for the purposes of sodomy. There is, in other words, no reasoning with the man. And, the sad thing is, there are millions more like him in our country. In spite of that, though, the evidence to the contrary keeps building, and, I would hope, eventually the tide will turn.

Here, speaking of evidence to the contrary, is a clip from CNN this morning.

Ten days after four Americans were killed in their Libyan city, hundreds marched in Benghazi and took over the headquarters of a radical Islamist group tied to the attack.

Thousands of protesters had taken to the street earlier Friday, loudly declaring that they — and not those behind last week’s deadly attack — represent the real sentiments of the Libyan people.

“I am sorry, America,” one man said. “This is the real Libya.”

In the evening, an offshoot of several hundred people then headed toward the headquarters for Ansar al-Sharia, a loosely connected radical Islamist group.

As militia members fled, the protesters torched a vehicle and took over the group’s building without firing a single shot. Some of those involved claimed to have freed at least 20 captives held inside, and expressed their intent to assume control over other Ansar al-Sharia buildings.

Army General Naji al-Shuaibi said the citizens, whom he referred to as “revolutionaries of the February 17 uprising,” later asked that the Ansar al-Sharia headquarters be handed over to the Libyan army.

“Indeed, we rushed here and we will now take it over,” said the general. “There are also other places that we intend to take over (which belong to armed groups) if the revolutionaries and the people allow us to do so.”

But some of the protesters gathered at locations that house forces loyal to the national authority, he said, including the headquarters of the Rufallah al-Sihati battalion. Gunfire could be heard at the headquarters, but it was not initially clear who was responsible.

Mohamed al-Magariaf, president of Libya’s General National Congress, thanked the protesters for helping evict “armed groups. He also said the Rufallah al-Sihati brigade was actually “under the command of — and committed to — the national authority,” the case appeared to be one of mistaken identity. Magariaf asked demonstrators to stop their activities and go home…

So, I have a question to pose to EOS… Were all of these people, who drove the jihadists from their headquarters yesterday, acting? Were the jihadists firing at them shooting blanks? Was this all an elaborate ruse, justified under Al-Takeyya, and coordinated by our terrorist-loving President, meant to somehow distract us from the global threat of radical Islam?

[note: Just so we’re clear, I do believe that radical Islam poses a significant threat to mankind. I think, in fact, that, in spite of global warming and everything else, religious fundamentalism is probably the biggest threat that humanity faces at the moment. That doesn’t mean, however, that I’m so foolish as to believe that all Muslims are working behind the scenes to impose Sharia law i the West and eliminate all Christians from the face of the planet. And I find it incredibly frustrating that others, like EOS, seem unwilling to accept the fact that we share common cause with a certain percentage of those who consider themselves Muslims, who desperately want to live in countries that protect the rights of minorities, treat women equally, and enjoy a free press, among other things. We can argue as to how big this percentage is, but it’s absolutely ridiculous, in my opinion, to suggest that there’s not one Muslim on the face of the planet who isn’t actively engaged in jihad.]

Posted in Politics, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 76 Comments

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